RealGM

Morris' play has been the biggest difference between this season and last season.

https://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/2017/11/26/16701308/washington-wizards-john-wall-markieff-morris-injury-eastern-conference

it's a semi-fluff piece that isn't saying much. The Wizards are inconsistent...everyone knows this. Not sure what role Morris plays, however; although he believes he's a leader, in reality he's a bench player playing starter minutes, and overall has no real effect on wins and losses. The Wizards will win and lose based off the play of three guys who don't need mentioning...the others are interchangeable cogs that don't turn the needle (except for maybe Oubre, who can make the team somewhat dangerous if he pans out).

The 4-man combinations data is really interesting:


The 4-man lineup consisting of Wall, Beal, Porter and Oubre looks awesome. They're +20.6.

If you replace one of those four guys with Gortat, the lineup still holds up. One is +19.5, one is +17.8, one is +11.7 and one is +7.2 (the one without Porter, not surprisingly).

But as soon as you replace one of the Big Four with Morris, the production immediately goes to hell. With Morris in there, the best lineup is just +2.3. Another is -0.7. Another is +0.4. Another is +1.4.

The 5-man lineups show the same pattern, but the sample sizes are too small to matter. The only 2 combinations with a decent sample size are the starting lineup with Morris, and the starting lineup with Oubre replacing Morris. With Morris, they're +1.4. With Oubre, they're +21.2 .

Evidently, Morris is poison.

nate33 wrote:The 4-man combinations data is really interesting:


The 4-man lineup consisting of Wall, Beal, Porter and Oubre looks awesome. They're +20.6.

If you replace one of those four guys with Gortat, the lineup still holds up. One is +19.5, one is +17.8, one is +11.7 and one is +7.2 (the one without Porter, not surprisingly).

But as soon as you replace one of the Big Four with Morris, the production immediately goes to hell. With Morris in there, the best lineup is just +2.3. Another is -0.7. Another is +0.4. Another is +1.4.

The 5-man lineups show the same pattern, but the sample sizes are too small to matter. The only 2 combinations with a decent sample size are the starting lineup with Morris, and the starting lineup with Oubre replacing Morris. With Morris, they're +1.4. With Oubre, they're +21.2 .

Evidently, Morris is poison.

That's been pretty obvious since last season, but Scottie knows best...I suppose